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This afternoon, Dustin and I took Lara to see "The Princess and the Frog." A good friend from Bloomington is always very willing to watch one or both of the girls for us, and tries very hard to accomodate us. That being said, we dropped Claire off at Shelley's WORK for the day! I was quite hesitant about this, but Shelley seemed to really want to do it. WORK is church, of course, so Claire was laid down for a nap in the nursery which is basically right across the hall from Shelley's office. And Claire did great. Lara did good too. Dustin took Lara to see a movie a few months ago, but Lara couldn't sit still through it. We thought she would do well at a princess movie however. Lara was really looking forward to seeing Tiana. Lara was already quite familiar with Tiana thanks to this website.

So Lara put on her Snow White dress that she is borrowing from her cousins for a few days, I stashed some poptarts and chocolates in my purse, and off we went. Lara sat until the food ran out, then got antsy. I allowed Lara to walk up and down our row. There were few other people in the theater since we went to a noon show. She watched the movie, but she just needed to be moving around. It was nice to do something with just Lara. We plan to do that more as the girls get older-take them out individually for their own special time.

When we left the movie, Lara kept saying, "I got married! I got married!" This is because Lara has begun wanting to pretend play everything she reads about or watches in movies. Lara's favorite books are the Olivia books. In one book, Olivia jumps on the bed, and her mother comes in and says, "Olivia! I said NO JUMPING!" So one day, Lara insisted that I say that to her while she jumped up and down on her bed. I had to say it over and over. It was really amusing.

This past weekend, my 3 nieces came for a visit. We had a special project we needed to work on. I have seen my nieces more times in the last 3 months than I have in the last 3 years, and it is wonderful. So this meant that there were 5 girls, age 7 and under, in my small house. It was a little crazy, but these times are so special. I think my sister and I will look back on these times with fond affection. On Thursday, Lara and I will get some more time together as we take a trip to my oldest niece's Christmas concert in the evening.

Claire is a happy baby. She is almost 7 months, and I can't believe how the time is flying by. Although she is a lot of fun, there are struggles. She's been constipated for quite some time now, but the doctor insists that I continue to wait it out. So we've pretty much been feeding her prunes and pears at every meal. :D She is still not sleeping through the night. Last night she did sleep about 5.5 hours straight. This is very good for her. I know eventually it will get better-she has to move out of the house at some point, right?

I'm making baby food for Claire like I did with Lara, although not quite as much, since there's not as much time. This morning, I made a lot of noise grinding brown rice for her cereal (which she finally had some for the first time this morning in two weeks, because I cut her off due to the constipation). In general, I am trying to be more healthy in regards to what I feed my family. I got really lazy there for awhile. So now I make meal plans, and think of a veggie and fruit for every meal, and Lara's snacks consist of healthy choices, like fruits and cheese, and we try to forgo the animal crackers. I was at a friend's house recently and saw on her fridge a calendar, on which she had the whole month's meals decided. But not just the main thing, but all the good extras. This inspired me.

Okay, I feel that I could go on forever, but it's late, and this blog will apparently be around forever. Aw, look at us 2 YEARS ago.